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November 18, 2021

COVID-19. Romania reported little over 3,000
new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours, as well as 332 related
fatalities, 76 of them from an earlier date. According to official data, 311 of
the total number of deaths were reported among unvaccinated patients. More than
1,600 patients are currently in intensive care. The infection rate across the
country is dropping, but scores of cities still have incidence rates above 6
per 1,000 inhabitants. As of Wednesday Romania has over
7 million fully vaccinated citizens.

Newsroom, 18.11.2021, 14:22

Government. The
Social Democrats and the Liberals may resume today negotiations on the
structure and governing programme of the new Cabinet they intend to form
jointly with the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians. While both parties agreed to the idea of a rotation government, Wednesday’s
talks were suspended as each party insisted on being the first to designate the
prime minister. The Social Democrats nominated their president, Marcel Ciolacu,
who promised his cabinet would be in office as early as next week. In turn, the
Liberals want their own leader and interim PM to stay in office, although he
was dismissed last month in a no-confidence vote. Two subsequent attempts
at forming a minority government failed, and President Klaus Iohannis has said he will only invite parties to consultations
after a parliamentary majority is agreed on.

Vaccination. The
digital COVID certificate and the vaccine are our main instruments in fighting
the pandemic, and we must use them, the European Commissioner for internal
market Thierry Breton said while on an official visit to Bucharest. He
emphasised Europeans are rather lucky to have an effective vaccine against the
virus available. The EU official also said the low vaccination rate jeopardises
Romanians’ health and is a barrier to the full recovery of Romania and of the
EU as a whole. During his meeting with the interim health minister Cseke
Attila, the 2 officials discussed the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the vaccine
supply and the measures taken by member states with respect to the digital
certificate. Thierry Breton will also have a meeting with president Klaus Iohannis
later today.

Pandemic. A new COVID-19 wave hit
the centre and west of Europe, with nearly 53,000 new cases reported in 24
hours in Germany, 25,000 in Poland, 20,000 in France, 14,000 in Austria, 10,000
in Hungary. The Netherlands also announced a 44% increase this week compared to
the previous one. Restrictions are once again introduced, especially against
the unvaccinated, which prompts new interest in getting the vaccine. Sweden for
the first time introduces a green pass to be used as of 1 December for events
with more than 100 participants. France on the other hand does not plan new
restrictions.

Moldova. Chișinău continues to call for the pull-out of
Russian troops from the east of Moldova, the country’s foreign minister Nicu
Popescu said in Moscow, at a joint press conference with his Russian
counterpart Sergey Lavrov. This is a priority of our foreign
policy, Popescu said, referring to the troops deployed in the breakaway region
of Transnistria, which Russia’s ex-president Boris Yeltsin undertook to pull
out as far back as in the 1999 OSCE Summit in Istanbul. The Republic of Moldova
has had no control on the breakaway region of Transnistria since 1992, after an
armed conflict that killed hundreds of people was ended by the intervention of
Russian troops on the side of the separatists. (tr. A.M. Popescu)